The resort of Grand-Bornand will host an event of the Biathlon World Cup. The arrival of trucks loaded with powder is controversial.
By The Point.fr
© OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP
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DEleven trucks filled with snow go back and forth while a snow groomer traces a white track in the middle of a completely green field. The images relayed by France 2 from the station of Grand-Bornand, in Haute-Savoie, challenge. As is more and more common over the years, this resort, whose cross-country ski trails are located at an altitude of around 900 meters, is not yet covered in snow at the end of the year. However, it is preparing to host a round of the Biathlon World Cup, from December 15 to 18, 2022. But everything was planned: snow, made at altitude and stored during the summer, was delivered by truck to tracks. A practice that leaves some residents perplexed.
“We look with a mocking smile at Qatar and its air-conditioned stadiums and, in fact, the principle that we are developing here is exactly the same”, denounces to France 2 Jordan Rémy, who lives a few steps from the snow reserve used for the occasion. For this resident, it is incomprehensible that “a World Cup is still being organized in December at an altitude of 900 meters, knowing for x years that it was going to be more and more complicated to have snow”.
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“There is necessarily an environmental impact”
Faced with the question, the organizers of the Biathlon World Cup object that this sporting discipline requires the use of artificial snow, which is more compact than natural snow. On the side of the town hall of Grand-Bornand, it is ensured that the concern for the environment has been taken into account. “There is inevitably an environmental impact, declares the mayor of the station, André Périllat. Biathlon is no exception. What we are looking for is to reduce the most significant impact. And the most important thing is, among other things, everything in the field of transport” for athletes and spectators, he assures us.
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